Yarden cabernet sauvignon 2009 WTN

[Arthur Juran]

Dear Forumites!
Do You have WTN for this wine?
Best Regards
Arthur

[Gabriel Geller]

Hi Arthur,

I have not yet tasted it but will hopefully do so in a few days. A friend told me that the wine seems to have good potential and is till in its infancy at this stage but apparently while still very nice, this is not the best ever vintage for the regular Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon. He reported that it has

good fruit, a strong tannic structure and a long lingering finish

however it felt still a bit closed even 2 days after having opened the bottle.

Best,

GG

[Isaac Chavel]

My guess is that the future regular series wines will be cannibalized by all the single vineyard wines. I just do not see them improving in quality with all the best grapes going elsewhere.

[Andrew Breskin]

I actually thought the 2009 vintage was my favorite since the 2006, and I am not typically a big drinker of the Yarden regular series.

[Isaac C]

I had it a few months ago and thought it was really good, obviously very young, but still showed really well.

[Yossie Horwitz]

While there have been increasing numbers of single vineyard wines coming from GHW, I don't think they have (or have any plans to) "cannibalize" the "regular" Cabernet Sauvignon series which they take very seriously and really view as an icon of the Israeli industry and the true "flagship" of the winery. Successfully maintaining the consistent level of quality for the wine (the way they have for so many years) is very important to them and I would expect the wine to continue its level of excellence and aging ability for years to come. They have plenty of new and quality vineyards available to maintain the SV wines as well. Obviously in years there are no Katzrin, Rom or El-Rom wines, the level of grapes available for the series are higher, but there is no cannibalizing of the wines. The El-R
om has been around since 2001 with no noticeable deterioration of the regular series....

[Elie Poltorak]

I think there's some truth to both sides here. IMHO, the SVs have cannibalized the regular merlot, which used to be just as consistent as the CS but hasn't had a good vintage since '03. However, I haven't seen any decline in the CS at all--probably for the reason Yossie stated: it is their "flagship" wine. They make plenty of more expensive wines but the CS is what put their winery on the map and is still their mainstay. In fact, I think the '07 was one of their best vintages ever! The '09 is still VERY young but has promise. The '07 was unique in that despite its aging potential, it was more fruit forward and showed very well upon release, which is unusual for a Yarden CS. The '09 needs another year or so to become approachable.

[Isaac Chavel]

On Yossie's take on Yarden CS --- certainly reasonable.